Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(133)
His lips pull into a straight line as he shakes his head. “Sorry, the board said no.”
“The board is biased, I fear.”
“That might be true. They never punished me for all the times I thought about you naked.”
My jaw drops. “That wasn’t even a rule! It was that you weren’t allowed to bring it up!”
“Oh, my bad.” Henry kisses my shoulder, and in the distance, I can hear the start of a song that is almost definitely from Mamma Mia!
“Thank you for being on my team, Henry.”
“Thank you for giving me the love I could never picture.”
I take his face in my hands, kissing him deeply with every ounce of my love for him. “And how does it make you feel? Now that you can picture it?”
He’s quiet while he thinks. “Like I’m living in my daydreams. So, pretty damn happy.”
Acknowledgments
WOW. ANOTHER BOOK! LOOK AT us go.
I have a long list of people I need to say thank you to for making Daydream happen:
To start, I want to say a big, fat thank-you to my agent, Kimberly Brower, because I wouldn’t have gotten through writing this book without her and her patience. Submitting a book very late is a –12 out of 10 experience and I do not recommend, but taking the time I needed was a million times better knowing that I always have you in my corner, Kimberly.
My assistant, Lauren, who appropriately nicknamed this book NIGHTMARE. Thank you for letting me use your eldest-daughter trauma for my commercial gain, and I’m sorry I made you read it so many times. Thank you for listening to me talk about this book every day for a year and holding my hand every step of the way.
My entire publishing team at Simon & Schuster and beyond. Boy, I really made you wait for this one, didn’t I? Thank you so much to everyone who changed their priorities, worked late, worked the weekend, did things in totally ridiculous time frames all so we could get Halle and Henry into people’s hands on time. Thank you for your patience with me and your commitment to helping me find my groove in this weird traditional publishing landscape that I’m still adjusting to. I’m so grateful to each and every person who keeps the Hannah Grace wheel turning.
Johanie, thank you so much for your kind thoughts and input to make this book the best it can be.
My friends who have been so understanding and gracious when I ignored their messages for weeks at a time while working on this book. Thank you for telling me I would finish… repeatedly, because I’ve been super annoying for the past year and have needed so much reassurance. Thank you to everyone who answered my questions, read chapters, let me bounce a paragraph off them even with your own lives, projects, and deadlines looming.
Special mention to Nicole, Jess, Sarah, and Kimmy for reading the roughest drafts of this work. Then again, when I decided to start from scratch.
My husband and my dogs, for being my team.
My sister, because I couldn’t write 125k words about Halle without mentioning the eldest daughter in my family. Thank you for shouldering all the weight so I didn’t have to; I swear I’ll make it up to you.
My readers, you’re the best. I’m so lucky and I’m so excited/terrified to talk to you about Daydream now you’ve read it! I wouldn’t be able to do all of this without you all.
Finally, thank you to Taylor Swift, Warburtons Potato Cakes, and my Stanley cup for all that you do for me.